Blog

May 7, 2018

Exciting news! Photo Screening is here.

At Twin City Pediatrics, we strive to follow the most updated recommendations for the care of your children.  Therefore, we've recently started offering instrument-based visual "photo screening" for our patients. Unfortunately, eye problems in younger children can be hard to detect because children often do not complain about blurry vision, but vision problems are common.  In fact, 5-10% of preschoolers and 25% of school aged children have problems with their vision.  Early diagnosis and treatment of eye problems leads to better outcomes.  Given these improved outcomes, instrument-based screening is endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the United States Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF), and the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO). 

To identify vision problems early, our practice is now using the Spot Vision Photo Screener.  This is an automated screening tool that detects common, treatable conditions that affect vision including refractive errors (nearsightedness or farsightedness and astigmatism), amblyopia (lazy eye), strabismus (cross eye), and aniosocoria (pupil size abnormalities).  This photos screener allows us to screen toddlers and preschoolers before they are able to cooperate with traditional vision screening procedures (using picture or letter charts). 

Since photoscreening is now recommended by several national guidelines, it is covered by many insurers.  However, given this is a new service, we encourage our families to call your insurer to ask about their reimbursement for CPT code 99177.  If photoscreening is not covered by your insurance, you may opt to decline or to pay out of pocket for the service.

Please let us know if you have any questions about this exciting new service.  We look forward to "SEE"ing you at your next visit.